Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with directions

A better user manual

markcmyers — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 06:31:26 -0800

A better user manual. As a demonstration, I want to rewrite a few poor product user manuals or directions intended for a nontechnical audience. What user manuals or directions have driven you nuts and would benefit from a thorough rewrite?

Help me help my boss not get lost.

chiababe — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:50:48 -0800

My boss wants me to research GPS units for him to use since he'll be traveling a lot more in the near future. Any recommendations? I really don't know what I should be looking for in a good GPS unit. He wants to spend less than $200. It also needs to be fairly simple to use and update. He's an awesome boss, but not so good with tricky technology. Most of his travel will be within North and South Carolina. We're looking to purchase this within the week, so I won't be able to wait for new models that might be around the corner. I've read a few of the previous questions on this, but I'm wondering if there's anything new and exciting I should be looking at.

One-click subway directions from home on Google Maps?

NickDouglas — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 11:21:20 -0800

How can I get one-click public-transit directions from my home to anywhere on Google Maps? Almost every time I ask Google Maps for directions, I want to take public transit from my home (let's pretend it's 100 Bedford Ave., Brooklyn NY) to the destination. The current workflow for this is:

- Enter "map 555 park ave, ny" or "map fabianes,brooklyn" into Firefox's address bar (since I've assigned the keyword "map" to the Google Maps search form).
- Click the result, then "to here."
- Enter "10" before Google suggests my full address in the dropdown (since I've used it before). Hit down, enter, enter.
- Now I have driving directions. Click "public transit." Done!

How can I compress all of this into one or two steps?

I expect that it's easier to compress a discrete address like 555 Park Ave. than to compress a search like "Sunny's," where there's the extra step of selecting which search result is my desired destination. I'd be satisfied with either a robust solution that starts after I select the destination, or an address-only solution that gives me public transit directions as soon as I type in the right keyword and destination address and hit enter.

I lost the directions.

P.o.B. — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:26:12 -0800

I have this voice recorder from ThinkGeek and I lost the directions. I can figure out the basics but the multiple flashing LEDs kind of make it a little confusing. Does anyone have the specifics on how this thing works?

Get me from Philly to Dartmouth

lpsguy — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 16:30:03 -0800

What's the best way to drive from near Philadelphia to Dartmouth in New Hampshire? It's college tour time for our lpsgirl. We'll be driving from Valley Forge, west of Philadelphia, to Dartmouth in New Hampshire. GPS and Google maps point us through New York, and Bridgeport and Hartford and up from there. I'm looking at an alternate route that goes up the I-87 west of NYC and then cuts east across to New Hampshire. The western route looks longer on a map and by Google and GPS. But the proposed route looks laden with traffic. Oh, and we'll be driving on a Sunday with flexibility to leave anytime.

So, anyone driven this before? What's the best way? Go up and come in from the west, or be more direct and risk traffic around populus areas?

Thanks hivers.

Help me get to Killington tonight, tonight!

Opposite George — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 10:05:28 -0800

How should I drive to Killington, VT from Ridgefield CT tonight? Given the holiday and rush hour, what route will take the least time? Heading up to Killington, Vt. for a weekend trip (yeah, I know it's MLK weekend.) Leaving Ridgefield, Ct. at 4pm.

Google Maps says take Rte. 7 all the way up through Rutland, which is fewer miles, and the route I'd take if I wanted a leisurely drive. I don't, as I need to meet some people tonight.

Despite Google Maps' advice I almost always make better time taking 84 to I-91 all the way up to Chester (using posted speed limits as a suggestion.) BUT, leaving when I am means possibly getting stuck in rush hour and holiday traffic in Danbury, Waterbury, Hartford and maybe even Springfield?

I'm stuck. Please help me decide! Does anybody have any experience with either route on a holiday weekend around this time?

Getting around in Puerto Rico

indyz — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 12:26:40 -0800

How do I format Puerto Rican addresses for Google Maps, or any other online mapping service? I get that addresses are a road and a distance (for example, El Yunque National Rain Forest is apparently at Route 191, kilometer 4.2). What I can't figure out is how to put that address into any online mapping services.

What's Pre-Roll?

Ironmouth — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 08:53:28 -0800

What Does Pre-Roll Mean? A friend is filming an event for a producer with his high-end video camera. The producer is asking for 5 minutes of "pre-roll" on each tape. What does that mean?

Need translation help before I make udon soup.

puffin — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 12:12:12 -0800

Help me read the directions on this Japanese soup stock packet. I also took a picture of the box that the packets came in which has various other ml amounts.

I took a trip to the local Asian grocery store today and one of the staff helped me pick out this soup stock base...but of course I forgot to check for English directions on the package before I came home.

All I need to know is water:packet ratio. I can read "250 ml" and "300ml" on the packets but that is less water than I would expect to use given the size of the packets. Also, I have no idea what all the other (larger) numbers on the box are referring to.

Japan maps in english

nintendo — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 05:32:25 -0800

Where can I get driving directions in Japan in English? Tired Google all day, Im going from Yokohama to Hiroshima, if only I'd anted up for the GPS. :)

Get me through Seattle!

aaronetc — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 19:25:17 -0800

What's the best way to drive from SeaTac through Seattle and out to the north? In mid-October I'll be flying to Seattle, then renting a car and driving up to Vancouver (it turned to be much cheaper than flying directly, plus I'll have a car available to poke around the Vancouver area). This thread has provided some help, but I wonder if some Seattlites can help with my route planning. I-5 is apparently undergoing some crazy construction, so if my flight arrives at 2:40 PM, and I'm heading out of the airport around 4:00, should I take I-5, I-405 or some other route?

Anyone know their way around Paris and Amsterdam?

mundy — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 06:41:22 -0800

EuroTourFilter How much travel time is involved in getting from: 1) La Flèche d'Or at 102 bis rue de Bagnolet - 75020 to the Louvre? 2) Paradiso at Weteringschans 6-8, Leidseplein to the Rijksmuseum? Is public transport to/from workable for a first time, ignant American visitor? Thanks for any insight you can offer. I'm leaving in about 4 hours...

I'm a man ...and yes I need driving directions

thatguyryan — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 12:47:52 -0800

There must be a great way for me to get driving directions via cell phone, right? I tried googling but didn't come up with anything that fit the bill. Once upon a time I would call Infone to give it the address or intersection for my current location and my intended destination. It would give me those great step by step driving directions with mileage for each turn/leg. Is there some similar service out there now? Free is of course best. Cheap is ok if free isn't available. This will be used on the road where I have no web access, only a cell phone with voice and text message capability but no mobile web or anything. The phone is a Samsung U740 and my provider is Verizon if those may affect the answer. Thanks in advance.

How do I include a link to driving directions in an embedded Google Map?

designbot — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 14:55:08 -0800

What is the best way to embed a Google Map of a business's location, including a link to driving directions? This is for a small business's website. All I want is a small embedded map of the business's location, with a standard pop-up flag including links for driving directions, the address, etc. (Basically like what you see here, but without the extra search results on the left-hand side.

If there's a better input method for requesting driving directions, that would be fine too.

I would think that providing a map & driving directions to a specific business would be one of the most common uses of the Google Maps API, but I don't see any examples of what I'm looking for. Surely, there must be a simple, standard way to provide driving directions on your website… Right?

Best mapping software?

names are hard — Wed, 30 May 2007 08:44:08 -0800

What is the best free online directions service for a long road trip? I'm traveling from Boston to New Orleans, with a few stops along the way. Google Maps? Yahoo? MSN? MapQuest?

Alternative Driving Directions to Google/Mapquest?

543DoublePlay — Mon, 21 May 2007 15:47:59 -0800

Driving Directions Filter: Is there another online service like Google maps or Mapquest that will allow me to customize part of my route? We're driving from DC suburbs in Virginia to get to I70 in PA. I know the way that Mapquest and Google driving directions give me, but I want to avoid that route (around the DC beltway and up 270) as I know the day and time I have to go there will be rush-hour traffic a-go-go. I want to maybe take either I66 to I81 or out through Leesburg and pick up Rt 15, but I would like to compare mileage and total estimated time, but I seem to be forced to take either the most obvious route or the most obscure using Mapquest's advanced directions (not so advanced really as the only choices are no toll roads, no highways, etc).

So is there another service that will let me customize part of my route and then give me the best option after my chosen route is over or am I just looking for something that doesn't really exist?

How to Get There? (Greater Boston area)

Firas — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 11:07:09 -0800

CluelessFilter, MassachusettsFilter: "Mobil station at exit 17 off 495 in Franklin". Totally lost about how to find out whether this location is even vaguely accessible via the MBTA/commuter rail? I can plug in an address at the MBTA site but I have no idea how to find nearby addresses or that of the Mobil station at that particular exit.

Help me bend Google Maps to my will....

anastasia — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 11:54:16 -0800

Help me bend Google Maps to my will.... At work, I very often need to use the "Get Directions" feature of Google maps to plot directions from a specific highway exit to another specific highway exit. (For instance, right now I need to create directions from Exit 113 on I-95 in Augusta Maine to Exit 38 on I-495, which is somewhere in Massachusetts.) However, Google Maps (or, really, any other on-line direction-giving sites I can find) can't seem to recognize the exit numbers as locations, despite the fact I know they must know where they are.

Is there some hack for this that I'm not aware of? Right now I wast a lot of time trying to Google up a business or other address that is near the exit, and plot my directions to and from those directions, but that wastes a LOT of time and can be a huge pain.

PS: downloading Google Earth is not an option.

Geocoding and driving time APIs?

orthogonality — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 09:29:02 -0800

Geocoding and finding driving time between geocoded addresses: best free APIs? I'll have several thousand addresses in a database. For each address, I want to geocode it, that is, find its latitude and longitude, and put that back into the database.

For all addresses within n statute miles of another address, I'll want to calculate approximate driving time between those addresses. Figuring n to be less than 5, that's still quite a few driving time lookups. I may or may not want to actually get driving directions.

I know how to calculate distance between two lat/lon pairs, so I don't need an algorithm.

What I do need is to figure out the best free APIs to geocode and calculate driving time.

Google Maps, the perl module Geo::Coder::US,, MapQuest? What should I use?

This is going to have to be quick and dirty, a very time sensitive, so my preferred API langauges would be what I'm most conformable coding in. In order of most preferred to least preferred, that's probably: C++, Java, Javascript. I can get around in Perl and figure out PHP.

Best case might be to get the Geo::Coder::US database into SQL, but that may be asking too much.

Best Route?: Boston to Philly

Hillman Cobs — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 12:32:58 -0800

What is the best driving route from Boston to Philadelphia? I am driving a moving truck from Boston to Philadelphia. We have driven down in our car using the Google Maps route and it was a bit complicated, which made the trip more stressful than I had hoped. This time I will be driving a much larger vehicle that I am not as comfortable with. Is there anybody out there that makes this trip regularly that can share a simpler/easier route? One that perhaps allows us to avoid as much NYC madness as possible. I am willing to sacrifice a quicker trip for a less stressful one. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Bay Area Early Morning Commute

mto — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 21:55:14 -0800

Coming from Palo Alto, I need to get to San Francisco by 9am on July 4th. What's the cheapest / fastest way to do this? I probably won't have access to a car. Caltrain operates on Sunday hours on Holidays, so they can't get me to San Francisco until 9:36am. In particular I need to get to Noe Valley, if it helps.

Can I take a taxi? If so, how much will it be? Should I rent a car for the day? What other options do I have? Also, I don't live in California so don't assume I'm too familiar with services, towns, etc.

If by some miracle I do get access to a car then how long should I expect my commute to take?

Can't get my kicks on route four one six.

helvetica — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 11:33:55 -0800

I'm driving from Toronto to Ottawa on Canada Day weekend. I don't want to take the 401. Is this reasonably possible? I will be leaving next friday, hopefully around lunchtime, but possibly around 5:00pm. Is highway 7 the whole way going to take me like 10 hours? Any better routes by maybe taking the 401 to get out of Toronto and then taking with another road? I really hate driving east on the 401, and the 416 seems really unappealing. Any and all recommendations or cool routes will be considered. Also, a heads up on possible congestion along the way would be appreciated.

Appalachain Trail (Nantahala) guidance?

jruckman — Fri, 26 May 2006 14:46:18 -0800

A group of my friends and I are looking to hike the first leg of the Nantahala area AT this weekend, and can't figure out where to park and enter. We would like to use the Cold Spring Shelter. I've read over this information, but can't understand what specific location on the river it is using for "miles from the Nantahala River", so as to determine where the shelter is located and where to enter. Does anyone have any idea? Any help is welcome.

If not, I'm absolutely open to other hiking and camping recommendations in the Jackson/Macon/Swain county area. We're going from Sunday to Tuesday morning, and a shelter is not necessarily required -- we have tents.

Shortest route LGB-Hollywood?

bac — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 10:54:53 -0800

I'm trying to figure out the fastest route from Long Beach airport to Hollywood. I don't trust the answers that MapQuest and friends come up with. Specifically, I'm trying to get from LGB to the El Rey on Wilshire, leaving the airport a little after 5:00 PM on a Saturday. All the mapping tools try to take me through downtown, which seems like a very bad idea unless that area has gotten a lot easier to drive through since I lived in LA. But the only alternative I've come up with is to take the 405 to the 10, and the 405 north of LAX didn't used to exactly be a treat that time of day either. Is there a better way?

central jersey to jfk airport?

ProfLinusPauling — Sun, 25 Dec 2005 14:53:23 -0800

Does anyone have any polite advice on driving from central new jersey to jfk airport so to get there for a 7:00 am flight? Here is a discreet portion of the mapquest directions:

Merge onto I-287 N toward BOONTON. (2.38 miles)
5. Merge onto I-80 E via EXIT 41A toward NEW YORK CITY. (18.97 miles)
6. Take I-80 EXPRESS LN E toward I-95/NEW JERSEY TURNPIKE/G. WASHINGTON BR. (5.43 miles)
7. Take the I-95 N exit- EXIT 68B- on the LEFT toward G WASHINGTON BR/NEW YORK. (0.62 miles)
8. Merge onto I-95 EXPRESS LN N/NEW JERSEY TURNPIKE N. (2.67 miles)
9. I-95 EXPRESS LN N/NEW JERSEY TURNPIKE N becomes I-95 N (Portions toll). (7.19 miles)
10. Merge onto I-678 S via EXIT 10 toward WHITESTONE BR (Portions toll). (14.64 miles)
11. Take the exit toward TERMINAL 1 2 3. (0.11 miles)
12. Take the ramp toward TERMINAL 1 DEPARTING FLIGHTS/TERMINAL 1 ARRIVING FLIGHTS. (0.04 miles)
13. Turn SLIGHT LEFT to take the TERMINAL 1 DEPARTING FLIGHTS ramp. (0.18 miles)
14. End at John F Kennedy Intl Airport (JFK) Jamaica, NY US
Total Estimated Time: 1 hour, 6 minutes
Total Distance: 53.87 miles

Essentially, I can't afford to miss this flight, so I need some advice on any of the potential pitfalls that I may encounter while driving to JFK on this route. [i.e. Any exits that are difficult to see? Any of those annoying highways divided into express and local lanes that might prevent me from getting to an exit? Does anyone have a toll cost estimate? Should I give myself more than two hours?]